1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to charging apparatus for introducing granular solid materials into a reactor, such as, introduction of raw batch material into a glass melter.
2. Description of Related Art
Batch chargers for feeding raw batch material to glass furnaces are well known as exemplified by U.S. Pat. No. 4,983,206. The 4,983,206 patent teaches a batch charger wherein the charger plate is supported on an array of sets of rollers, each set of rollers including a front and a rear roller mounted to a roller frame and each roller frame for each set of rollers having a jack positioned beneath its front and rear portions for independently raising and lowering the front and rear end of the charger plate. The batch charger shown in the 4,983,206 patent has three roller frames across its width and thus requires six jacks for adjustment. The 4,983,206 patent teaches that the adjustable charger plate crank assembly and its drive means for reciprocating the charger plate are affixed to the frame structure of the feeder. Therefore, both vertical and angular movement of the charger plates is limited especially in extreme positions, due to introduction of force vectors which ar angular with respect to the plane of reciprocation of the charger plate.